8 comments:

Great to hear from you! I want to explore with more textures in my gouache work and even oil paintings. I find the scraped palette is often more interesting as a starting point, than a clean canvas. I have a bunch of paintings in oils started and perhaps I can carry one or more in this direction.

Hi Erik,I think you get this asked way too often, but as I am currently jumping from digital to some traditional art I started out with watercolours and bought some basic 12-colors-box. However, I watched your three demonstrations from March 2008. You use the gouache as if it is almost 100% opaque. Somehow it doesn’t work with watercolours. Is it necessary to buy gouache to create that kind of effect?On top of that, my paper apparently doesn't allow to get rid of colour that was once established by wetting and wiping off.Do you have any tips for me?It would be great if you reply! =)

Thanks for your question, which is a good one! I recommend using mostly watercolors (tube kind) with one tube of white gouache. This is a great introduction to using gouache. As you learn and experiment making tints with the opaque/semi-opaque washes you will be more comfortable adding other colors in gouache down the road. The next ones I would say to add, would be; black gouache, brown, ultramarine.... etc.

When you are outside in a dry climate, gouache is really tough to work with as it dries so fast. If you are in those conditions, really soak the paper with pure water before you begin. Working wet-into-wet as a base. Think 80% watercolor - 20% gouache in general. Hope that helps a bit.

Thanks Erik, this in fact helped me a lot.Sometimes really small insecurities can cause a lot of trouble. And since I am still a student I don't have that much money and must carefully consider what to buy and what not to buy.Thank you again - watercolour is a really beautiful medium!Greetings from Germany!